Data from: Age influences the thermal suitability of Plasmodium falciparum transmission in the Asian malaria vector Anopheles stephensi

Models predicting disease transmission are vital tools for long-term
planning of malaria reduction efforts, particularly for mitigating impacts
of climate change. We compared temperature-dependent malaria transmission
models when mosquito life history traits were estimated from a truncated
portion of the lifespan (a common practice) to traits measured across the
full lifespan. We conducted an experiment on adult female Anopheles
stephensi, the Asian urban malaria mosquito, to generate daily per capita
values for mortality, egg production, and biting rate at six constant
temperatures. Both temperature and age significantly affected trait
values. Further, we found quantitative and qualitative differences between
temperature-trait relationships estimated from truncated data versus
observed lifetime values. Incorporating these temperature-trait
relationships into an expression governing the thermal suitability of
transmission, relative R0(T), resulted in minor differences in the breadth
of suitable temperatures for Plasmodium falciparum transmission between
the two models constructed from only An. stephensi trait data. However, we
found a substantial increase in thermal niche breadth compared to a
previously published model consisting of trait data from multiple
Anopheles mosquito species. Overall, this work highlights the importance
of considering how mosquito trait values vary with mosquito age and
mosquito species when generating temperature-based suitability predictions
of transmission.